The first movie by a director defined as the most powerful voice in the American experimental cinema by Martin Scorsese, Maya Deren has been chosen as a symbol of the Women’s Tales project. With its surreal poetic, Meshes of the Afternoon is considered one of the most influential avanguard works in the history of cinema.
The Women’s Tales
The Women's Tales meets some of the most important female figures in the Italian cinema, among which: Cecilia Valmarana, Giulia Calenda, Donatella Finocchiaro, Laura Delli Colli, Costanza Quatriglio, Maya Sansa, Francesca Cima, Cecilia Mangini, Pietra Detassis, Adriana Chiesa and Paola Corvino.
Donatella Finocchiaro: "Masculine and feminine essences complete each other in the cinema world and in any other field. I believe that the presence of women in the scripting phase gives a different point of view, a different glance."
Maya Sansa: "In Cinema's history the stereotype of the seductive woman is often reproduced. Male directors have an amazing perspective on women, but it doesn't mean that they necessarily know how to represent them."
Cecilia Mangini: "We are in a constant transition, I love to be in transition. It's important when you feel swept along by transition."
Giulia Calenda: "The female glance is different."
Second face to face about women's creativity with the Oscar winner Susanne Bier, the producer Sarah Green and Regine Hatchondo, general director of Unifrance, in a dialogue moderated by Luciana Castellina.
Susanne Bier: "Creativity doesn't depend on gender, but on the desire to see your own ambitions made real. As creative women, we make a big mistake to place ourselves as victims, we just have to express ourselves at an equal level. Gender does not determine creativity. I'm fascinated by women as well as by men."
Sarah Green: "I don't know what "being different" means. I'm a producer, and behind the scenes I see a lot of things. I think there's no difference between movies made by women or by men, it depends on individuals. It's not a gender's perspective."
Regine Hatchondo: "It's easy to do my job in France, but I still hope that the percentage of women in my field will increase. Sometimes we think that a movie is made by a man, and then we discover it's by a woman."
After yesterday’s Miu Miu Women’s Tales screening, everyone is talking about women's creativity. To share their opinion, today the four female directors met with the public in a session moderated by the cinema critic Marina Fabbri. Marina introduced the four directors by talking about the concept of metamorphosis.
Zoe Cassavetes: "Metamorphosis is more mental than physical. From the beginning each one of us decided not to include men in our casts. It’s difficult to make a movie; you must be a little bit crazy to do this job. Better to drop the idea that we are women, so it will be easier to make a movie. The Miu Miu Women's Tales is a fantastic idea: Miuccia loves art, women and their soul. A great opportunity to match fashion and cinema. I think Miu Miu should keep on doing this initiative."
Lucrecia Martel: "In Argentina there are many female directors. Sometimes the participation of women in the history of cinema depends on fragile things. A very small thing can become huge. The combination of fashion and cinema has always existed: it is a natural process. In Muta, protagonists are divas dressed in a typically Fifties attire, so that elegance is a necessary element. A great opportunity to use Miu Miu items in my movie: beautiful clothes fitting the actresses perfectly."
Giada Colagrande: "I received these impulses from clothes and from the feminine world such as free inspirations. Generally women think about transformation and mystery as reflections of their own image. This is the first time that I have a dress as a concept. A blood-red dress. I imagined Maya Sansa in a Hitchcock mood. I wanted the dress to be the protagonist, not the body".
Massy Tadjedin: "I really love the idea that our short film captured a transformation of a woman in a private moment, preparing herself for the next moment, as a process. This action is very feminine and elegant".
